Sword Alternate Online
by Sword Alternate Online
Summary: By changing one choice in Kirito's adventure in SAO, the entire story turns on its side. Sitting atop of his own guild, Kirito has to find a way to lead the people of Sword Art Online and escape once and for all.
1. Chapter 1

"There are many ways to tell a story. There are many ways to listen to a story. Each of us have our own view on every story we hear. Every story we tell. It's what shows our character. How others can understand us. The greatest part of life is to create the one we never get to live. That's what SAO is for me. The idea was to create my own little world. A world where every single person could create their own life they would otherwise never get to live. I don't write the story. I just give them a prompt to follow."

(Akihiko Kayaba, _MMO Today Magazine_ )

Chapter 1:

Kirito waited with dozens of other nervous players at the door to the boss room. Beside him stood Asuna, his sole party member in the fight. A whole month had passed, and nobody had managed to make their way to floor two. Most people had started to feel that they might never make their way out of the game. Some groups had already given up hope, and were already wasting their lives away just doing enough fetch quests to feed their hunger bar and to pay for rent at the local in.

All hope seemed lost, until a wise player known as Diavel managed to use his charisma to create a team in order to kill the boss of the main dungeon on the first floor. Kirito touched his hand on the handle of his sword. He couldn't wait to fight the Kobold Lord again. His first encounter with the boss threw him off a bit, and lead to his first death in the beta-test. This time he planned to make no mistake.

"Alright everyone," Diavel said, turning around to face his audience. "This is Illfang's chamber. I could say a lot right now to you all, but I believe there's only one thing that fits. Let's do this!" Everyone's cheers echoed throughout the hallway leading to the entrance to the boss room. Scrambling, they pushed open the humongous door to the chamber. Most fumbled into the dark room as quickly as they could. The hallway was long and dark, with a wooden doorway in the back of the chamber, guarded by a figure shadowed by the low light. _At least they kept that part the same_ , Kirito thought to himself. As he expected, the chamber began to shimmer with a blinding rainbow like glow coming from the ceiling. Some of the players covered their eyes, before they adjusted to the glare.

"Stand back!" Diavel warned them, holding his arm out in front of the group. They all waited. From the back of the room, the large monster known as the Kobold Lord crashed down from above in the center of the chamber. The red skin almost reminded Kirito of blood, and his dog-like face growled at them. Illfang let off a grand roar, bringing his axe and buckler out, and summoning several minions in the process. There wasn't any need to lower a stat from intimidation. The fear struck through everyone did the job no debuff could ever accomplish. "Alright men," Diavel cried out, "Get into position and _CHARGE_!"

The players overcame their emotions and rushed the towering beast. Kirito clenched the Anneal Blade in his hand. "This way!" He directed Asuna as they rushed the smaller kobolds. He parried an attack giving her just enough time to strike the creature in the chest. It felt strange to be in a party during the battle. Kirito had spent countless hours rebattling the boss for experience. After the first few attempts, he could win easily all on his own.

Even with the extra players, the thrill was only higher with the hardcore factor. Every point of damage he took felt ever more precious, and the need to press on was ever more present. He took a look to the main squadrons, who were busy fighting the villain itself. Although a few's health seemed to have reached the yellow area, they seemed to be doing fine. Most of the archers in the group were lined up in a formation that had taken hours the prior day for them to perfect. Nobody even tried to correct the fighting styles of the sword users. They would always charge in full force no matter what anyone advised. Kirito looked back at his partner. Her rapier danced through the air as if she had practiced her whole life. Even if she wasn't a beginner as she claimed, her skills out matched many of the beta testers even by the end of the testing period.

Illfang let off a roar in the distance, and the minion all instantly vanished. Kirito whipped his head around, and immediately check the boss's health. Sure enough, he was on the last quarter's worth of health. Everyone watched as the beast casted away his European weapons for the expected Indian blade. As the large red hand reached behind him, the gigantic sword slid out of sheath. Unfortunately, it wasn't a talwar as was expected. It was too long, as the curve was much to wide. The seemingly useless report on sword types Kirito did in seventh grade seemed to have paid off, as he recognized the Japanese blade on spot. It wasn't a talwar, it was an odachi. To most, it didn't seem like a big deal. However partially due to cultural bias, the odachi was a lot more powerful in SAO than the talwar. And that meant a lot of trouble for the fight.

Unfortunately, in the midst of Kirito's internal conflict on swords, Diavel had gone against the plan. Weapon drawn, he rushed Illfang alone, instead of the original idea for everyone to surround him at the end. His health was already in the orange, and with the upgraded weapon one shot could prove fatal.

"Diavel wait!" Kirito tried to warn, as he tried to get to their leader's side, "You can't go against him alone! Besides, he isn't using a talwar, that's an oda-". It was too late, Illfang's speed was increased by dropping the heavier weapons. In a matter of seconds, he took Diavel by surprise, knocking him flying across the room. Time seemed to slow down as he landed, and the entire raiding party seemed in shock.

Many players tried to run to help him, but Kirito got there first. "Go hold off the boss!" he ordered, "I've got potions, I can help him! Just finish this!" Hesitantly, the nodded and charged the warlord once again. "What were you thinking there?!" Kirito demanded as he pulled out one of his health potions for the dying general.

"It's no use," Diavel pushed the potion away, "I can already tell, my health's just dropping into the last words point." Kirito stared solemnly in silence. The last words point existed when you died, but your health was dropping slowly enough to give you just a moment to talk, but nothing could save you.

"Wait," Kirito gasped, "No newbie is going to know about that. How did you?" Diavel gave him a faint smile.

"You were in the beta too," he coughed, "Weren't you." Kirito nodded, setting the potion down at his feet.

"You were wanting the last attack bonus weren't you," he realized, "Don't you know how much of a risk that is?" The item was always awarded to the last hit on a boss, if the player hadn't beaten the boss before. It was a rarity to achieve even during the beta. Diavel chuckled softly.

"Everything I've done," he said, "Was for everyone else. I figured," he paused, "I could do something for myself. Funny my one selfish act would be my demise." He tilted his head so he could see the others fighting the boss. "They need a leader. Show them they can win. Show them, this game can be beaten." He gave off one final smirk, as he shimmered away into nothing, leaving behind just the trophy that symbolized his items to be looted.

Kirito stood up. Right beside him, Asuna was already prepared to assist in combat. "I'm ready for battle. What shall we do?" Both players drew their swords.

"Same strategy as we used against the minions," Kirito answered, "I'll counter, you strike!" Asuna nodded, and they sprinted to join the other fighters. With one look, Kirito realized how drastic the battle had become. Most players were in yellow health, with some even down to red. People were beginning to retreat to the entrance in hopes to regain some health from the natural regeneration. "Alright it's all or nothing Asuna!" Kirito let his voice fill the whole room, "He has a natural rhythm of attack, so all we need to do is time it right and we won't take a single hit!" Already, people's head began to turn to the pair as they charged.

Illfang made a grand jump at both of them, with a wide arc of attack. Kirito waited for just the perfect moment right before it hit them. "Now!" His sword skill shot him upward, countering the attack. Asuna followed his lead and made a flying leap at the kobold's stomach. However, she was too slow and he attempted to stop her with a powerful blow. "Asuna, watch out!" Almost stunned, she saw the incoming attack and ducked, letting the sword only cut off her hooded cloak. She continued to attack, smashing the monster for critical damage. The boss stumbled backwards. After just a short pause, it ran at them again. "Here he comes!" Kirito called, "Are you ready?" Asuna nodded, and prepared to attack.

Once again, Kirito countered right before they were hit, setting the enemy off balance. This time not waiting at all, Asuna jumped up and thrusted at Illfang again. Once again, he stumbled backwards, before running back at the heros. Kirito readied his sword, and attempted to stop the attack. Sadly, he realized he was too early, and he failed to counter altogether. The powerful strike sent him flying backwards to the ground. Preparing to strike again, the kobold loomed over him, raising his sword. Just as the blade came down, a green flash of light appeared, parrying the oncoming attack. Kirito looked to see the source was Agil, one of the more powerful members of the raiding party.

"Stay back for a moment," the practical giant reassured, "We can hold him off for a moment." Kirito looked and saw many of the other members of the raid group running in to help. He nodded, and gestured to go fight. Agil joined the others.

Kirito found Asuna offering him help standing up. "Thanks," he smiled, and reached back to pull out a health potion. His health bar quickly filled back up to full, and he charged back into the fight, with his partner close behind.

The other players still were having difficult getting any hits on the boss. Everyone was too focused on blocking. Kirito sprinted faster. _This is for Diavel_ , he thought to himself. _This is for Asuna_. He ran even faster. "This is for everyone here!" He lept at the monster, flying over an incoming sword attack. "Asuna, counter!" he requested.

"On it!" She answered and knocked the beat's sword away.

"Die!" Kirito brought his sword right down into the head of Illfang, dealing just enough damage to finish the job. The Kobold Lord staggered backwards, before falling down, crashing to the floor, and disappearing into glimmering particles.

Kirito knelt on the ground, as the word "Congratulations" appeared in front of everyone. They all celebrated in excitement amongst themselves at their victory. They had done it. They could officially say they had defeated the first boss. They could win. They could beat Sword Art Online. Kirito looked at the rewards window in front of him. He scrolled past most of the experience, and the smaller bonuses to the larger prize. Sure enough, his prediction was correct. He had gotten the last hit. Therefor, he got the bonus. The "Coat of Midnight", which normally would be found closer to floor fifteen.

"Congratulations," Kirito looked behind to find it was Agil speaking to him, "We can only thank you for this victory. We would've all died without you." Kirito was in shock.

"No," he humbly denied his credit, "I can't take credit." All the other players began to shout and cheer for him. He couldn't believe what was happening. He felt honored. Unfortunately, his personal victory was short lived.

"Stop cheering!" a yell came from the back of the crowd. Standing there in anger, was Kibaou. The previous day, Kibaou had attempted to use Diavel's meeting as a source to channel his hate against the beta testers. He was quickly shut down by Agil, but he left quite the impression on the rest of the raiding team. "Why'd you do it?!" Kibaou demanded, "Why'd you let Diavel die?" The entire crowd looked at both of them in confusion.

"Let him die?" Kirito asked, just as puzzled as the rest of them.

"That's what I said!" Kibaou called back, "Admit it, you knew the boss's attack patterns! You could've told all of us! Then he wouldn't have had to die! He could've stood a chance!" The rest of the players began to murmur to each other. Thing seemed to only be getting worse.

"Wait, I know how he knew!" One of the other players exclaimed, "He was a beta tester! That's how he knew how to fight the boss so well! He knew everything and kept it from us!"

"That's right!" Kibaou followed, "He's probably not even the only one here! Reveal yourselves you cheaters!" Eyes of suspicion began to be cast on everyone. Kirito began to worry. Ideas ran through his head on what to do. He looked around at everyone. He needed to act fast. Suddenly, the message in front of him caught his eye. He suddenly knew what to do.

"You know," Kirito said as he stood up, "Today was a really long day. We just travelled through a whole dungeon, fought a boss, and now we're all accusing each other of being beta testers." He turned at looked directly at Kibaou. "You'd like us to reveal ourselves, correct? I know two off the top of my head. One of them is me." He paused, to give himself a dramatic build up. "And the other one, was the very player you accuse me of letting die!" Shock crossed the entire group, even Kibaou seemed to be stunned.

"That's a lie!" Kibaou accused, "You're just trying to defend yourself!"

"Oh am I?" Kirito asked, "All the facts point to it. He had a perfect strategy for the boss fight, he was in the party who found the boss room. Why do you think he was trying to have you buy my sword from me?" Kibaou didn't respond. "Sorry, was I not supposed to know about that? The dots weren't that hard to find out. You picked a pretty bribable person to ask me for the sword."

"Stop struggling!" Kibaou responded, "Nobody believes you!"

"Then let me finish and they will!" Kirito yelled back. "Listen, everyone. Diavel was a great guy. He wanted us to succeed. His goal was to win. However he did try to do one thing for himself. He wanted this." Kirito equipped the Coat of Midnight. "This is the rare drop item from the boss for the last hit. Unfortunately, he never lived to earn it. And think about it, he tried to buy my great sword, and fought the boss alone. He knew all along. You can't deny that he was a beta tester." Kibaou gave a huff, but chose not to interject.

"However, you can't say he wasn't great either," Kirito said, "He ran a great team. He was a great leader. This group of people has potential. And he saw it in all of you." Kirito pointed at the door. "Through that door is the second floor. About a kilometer south of there, is Urbus. It's the main town on the second floor. We have two reasons to go there. The first, is simple. Once we activate the teleportation gate, all of us should be able to warp there and back from the second floor. The second, is more complicated.

"Now I can't say I know Diavel's motives for leading this group, but I have a hunch that he believed in all of us. In Urbus, there's a building known as the Guild Agency. It's where all guilds can be formed. And maybe this is a bit sudden but," Kirito took a deep breath, "I want to invite all of you to a guild. In honor of Diavel. Who's with me?" He waited for an answer. Most of the players were hesitant, to confused by what he had explained to fully decide.

"I'm with you," Kirito was overjoyed to hear that Agil was the first person to agree.

"I guess I will." Another player agreed to join. Slowly but surely, almost twenty-five of forty sum people in the raid chose to join Kirito. Even Kibaou and his friends eventually agreed to joining. The number willing to join was more than Kirito could imagine. However, not among the ranks, was Asuna.

"I'm sorry," she told him, "But I don't think I'd belong in a guild of the most skilled players." She frowned at him. "Not yet at least." Kirito gave her a reassuring smile.

"I won't force you to join," he said, "However, although you can become powerful as a solo player in SAO, it's only to a limit. One day, if you're invited by a player you trust to join a guild, don't turn that chance down." Without another word, Asuna nodded and ran off through the door.

It was agreed to give the non-guild members a head start into the floor, so they wouldn't have to wait to pass by the guild. As Kirito waited for everyone to be ready to press forward, he took a few steps over to where Diavel's trophy statue remained. He scanned the items and gear. Most of it was useless to him, such as a weaker sword, food, or worn armor. However Kirito noticed a small, rather useless looking ring in the list. Curiously, he withdrew it.

It was mostly golden, with a small blue gem in the center. Inscribed inside, it said the words "Trust no one, but make everyone trust you". Kirito slipped it on his hand.

"Are you ready?" Agil asked him.

"Yeah," he answered, "Let's go." And the guild set forth into floor two, to see what adventures awaited them.


	2. Chapter 2

"What I love about SAO is that the story builds itself. The NPCs are all programed by a computer, so repetition is able to be avoided, and the players playing the game always make different decisions, so things are new every day."

(Takeshi Akihara, SAO Programmer _The Evening Interview_ )

Chapter 2:

It was a long, but enthusiastic walk to arrive in Urbus. The first stop the team made was to make sure to activate the teleportation gate in the center of town. To Kirito's surprise, and the surprise of the few other beta testers in the guild, the gate was already in function for all of them before they even entered the city. According to the raiders who chose not to join the guild, it activated for them when the first person that arrived touched the keystone. After speaking with the local NPCs, it was discovered that, unlike the beta, whenever a boss was defeated and the teleportation gate was activated, the entire game was able to advance to the next floor. The conclusion was soon reached that it meant theoretically only one player needed to beat the game in order for everyone to be set free.

The second priority was to form a guild. Which seemed easy. However, it was chaotic organizing the money together to pay for a guild. Kirito found himself just short, and many of the guild members didn't yet trust him with their money, so Kirito found himself mostly splitting the tab with Agil. It took only a short talk with the NPC known as the "guild keeper" to find out the price to found a guild was set at a high 25,000 Cor. Even Kirito didn't expect quite as hefty of a cost. He only joined a guild once during the beta, and it was only because they asked him for help on a few quests. Even then, he only stayed for a few days before leaving without a word and continuing to play on his own. The thought that he would be running the first guild on the official game would've stopped him dead in his tracks.

The menu popped open in front of Kirito. A thought went through his mind when he looked at the first tab that opened. "What's our name going to be?" he asked unprofessionally. The other players looked clueless. They slowly started to come up with names.

"What about Dungeon Destroyers?" Most people shook their heads to that proposal.

"Snake Spiral!"

"Unstoppable!"

"Nameless!" Nothing seemed to fit, no matter what they came up with. The team spent nearly five minutes giving off suggestions. Some seemed to get ground, but didn't gain enough momentum overall.

"Hey, maybe we should name it after Diavel?" one of the players suggested.

"Yeah!" another agreed, "Like Diavel's Army! Kind of like in Harry Potter!" Many players began to agree with the idea of honoring their fallen leader.

After consideration of many names stretching from "The Shadow of Diavel" to "Diavelites", it was Agil that gave the final choice name.

"Perhaps we name it Diavel's Legacy?" he proposed, "I think it fits us pretty well." Most of the other members of the guild agreed, or lacked a better name themselves.

"Then it's settled," Kirito said as he typed the name in, "Welcome to Diavel's legacy." He pressed the enter tab, and the guild was formed. After the tedious process of inviting every player to the guild, and finalizing the settings, the players dispersed into the local inns and took their long deserved nights rest.

About a week later, Kirito found himself in the small meeting room in the guild house with his advisors to discuss the raids on the new dungeon. As soon as it was revealed the second floor was open to everyone via the teleportation gates, word spread like wildfire. WIthin just a few days, thousands of players were exploring the newly opened territory, and Diavel's Legacy was joined by hundreds of other guilds.

"I'll say it again, we find the boss room on our own, just as we did the one for floor one," Kazehi suggested. Most of the others groaned. Only a few years older than Kirito, he had invited her to be an advisor because she was a fellow player in the beta. Her ideas usually were more aggressive than the others in the group, so she often seemed reckless to the rest at the table.

"That strategy took us nearly a month!" Night objected. "At that rate, it'll take us eight years before we're out of here." He sulked into his chair. Night, or NightmareRider as his username in full, wasn't a very skilled fighter in combat. However studying abroad from America for his degree in government and politics, he was fairly talented at keeping track of the negotiations and economics of a guild, so Kirito invited him on the council.

"I agree," Agil, whom Kirito had appointed to second in command, "If every guild works individually, we'll be here forever."

"I'd say we just wait until one guild finds the boss room, and then rush and defeat the boss first," Kibaou sat with his chair dangerously close to collapsing. Originally, Kirito had no intention of giving him a seat at the council, but he had managed to talk his way into creating a large enough following, that Kirito didn't have much of a choice on the matter.

"This isn't a competition," Night reminded him, "We don't need to be the first ones there."

"I think that coat the old captain is wearing begs to differ," Kibaou motioned to Kirito. Kirito didn't like the fact that everyone admired his coat so often. Had it not been so powerful and the only one of two mementos of Diavel, the other being the ring he kept on his right hand since the day of the boss fight, he probably would've sold the item off for a high price to another player.

"He's not wrong," Kazehi agreed, "That coat is one of the best pieces of equipment so far. If we got the last hit bonus on the next boss it would boost our guild's power dramatically." It was found that many events that had been individualized in the beta, such as boss spawning, were set to the whole server when some other guilds went to grind for experience on Illfang, only to discover that the Kobold Lord was nowhere to be found.

"If we give the coat to another guild then they'd be more likely to help us in future battles," Night suggested, "I still say we need some allies if we want to win."

"Then who do we work with?" Kazehi asked him.

"We could go work with Indivisible," Kibaou offered, "They're pretty powerful."

"What about the Silver Bolt? I met a few of them, they seem like they'd be willing to work with us." Agil said.

Kirito began to lose focus on the conversation after that. He rarely ever worked on a team in MMOs, unless it was absolutely necessary. It was already difficult for him to focus on one guild, and the thought of working with others was too much for him to think about without a break.

"Alright," he finally spoke up, "Right now, all we can do is keep exploring the dungeon until more news comes up." He rose from the table to conclude the meeting. "All of you get some rest, we can continue this debate tomorrow." Kibaou, Kazehi, and Night all left the meeting room. Agil instead went over to speak with Kirito in private.

"We can't keep dancing around this issue forever, you know," he warned Kirito. "You are the leader, so it will have to be you who makes the final decision in the end." Kirito sighed in acknowledgement.

"I know, I know," he agreed, "I just need some time to think about this." He stood up and walked to the door.

"You going into the dungeon again?" Agil called after him. Kirito nodded. "You need someone to go with you." Kirito simply waved a back hand.

"I've been a solo player most my life," he laughed, "I'll be fine." He left without another word.

Kirito enjoyed his time alone in the dungeons. It was the one time he didn't have to deal with anything else. He had made a point of making sure not be highly recognized by other players when he went out in public. Even though the guild was highly noted at the time for clearing the first boss, whenever someone represented them in public it was usually Agil or Kibaou.

It was late at night when he entered into Urbus after completing all the quest in his quest log. The guild headquarters was located to the east in the town of Llyne, and he lacked the strength to make his way there against all the night roaming monsters. Instead, he chose to stay in one of the local inns.

Kirito was eating his dinner in the inn tavern when a familiar player entered inside.

"I thought I saw you here," Argo exclaimed as she sat down at his table. "I haven't seen you since those two guys tried to buy your sword off of you. Where have you been?" Kirito let out a deep sigh. He wasn't expecting to find the whiskered information broker any time soon.

"I've been around," he answered. Kirito didn't fully trust Argo. Most rumors were that she would give out any info for the right price, and that wasn't something he wanted happening to him.

"Come on, you can trust me," Kirito still made no response. Argo frowned. "Fine. Can you at least say what happened at the boss raid? I heard you guys used the guide for strategy. Did it work? Was it useful?" Kirito contemplated not answering, but decided to explain what happened. If he didn't say, someone else would. He explained up until Diavel's death because of the change in the game, and the increased difficulty of the fight. Argo listened closely, pleased about most of what happened, until she learned about the update in the game.

"Wait," she asked, "They changed the boss fight? The guide book was wrong?" Suddenly, she was really passionate about the issue.

"It was minor. There wasn't much anyone could do about it," Kirito assured her, but she still seemed concerned.

"Diavel," she thought back, "He was the leader of the whole plan. They named their guild after him. He must have been important." Her tone seemed regretful. "Wasn't he also the one who tried to buy your sword?"

"Yeah," Kirito shrugged, "But he was actually fairly nice." Argo looked down at the table.

"I'm sorry," she said, "He must have been really great. I wish I could've done more." She got up from the table. "I'm going to bed. It was nice talking to you Kirito." She slowly walked to the door. With one final turn, she told him, "If you ever need some information, let me know. For you, I'll let it be free." A friend request popped up in front of Kirito. "Just send me a message."

It was a few days before any more progress was made in finding the boss. Kirito was talking with Night in the meeting room when the guild received a visitor.

"Kirito," one of the other members of the guild asked, "A player wants to see you. He says it's urgent." Kirito glanced at Night, who just shrugged.

"I'm fine with it," he said. Kirito gestured to let them in. A girl who seemed to be around the age of seventeen walked into the room.

"Are you the leader of Diavel's Legacy?" the girl asked.

"I am," Kirito answered, "What do you want?" The girl opened her inventory to reveal a map of the main dungeon of the floor.

"My name is Nabiki Saotome, in game name IceQueen. I'm the leader of the guild Iron Wall, and I'm here to report that we've found the boss room for the second floor. I request help from your guild in fight." She set the map down on the table, and pointed to the exact location of the boss. Kirito checked her map to make sure every matched what he had seen so far. As soon as he finished he turned to Night.

"Go find Kibaou, Agil, and Kazehi," he told him. "We have a raid to plan."


	3. Chapter 3

"I waited in line all night just to get my copy of Sword Art Online. I can't believe gaming has come this far. After playing all of the Nerve Gear games, I was so excited to play the VRMMO. I can't wait until it starts up!"

(Ichigo Chiaki, Avid Game Player _The Evening Interview_ )

Chapter 3:

Diavel checked his watch again. It was 12:48. He had twelve minutes to wait. He paced laps around his room again. It had been over two month since the beta had ended. He was dying to get back into SAO again. He looked at his watch again. It was 12:51. Nine more minutes. He glanced at the nerve gear system again. Everything was set up properly. All he had to do was wait.

Diavel reached for his phone to see if any of his friends were ready to play. Right before he grabbed it, he stopped. None of them were gamers. None of them would've spent the money on a nerve gear. He already knew that from talking to them the other day. 12:56. Four minutes. He couldn't wait any longer. He raced over to the couch next to the computer and grabbed the Nerve Gear. 12:57. For a moment, he just held it in his hands, staring. But it wasn't enough. He laid down on the couch and slid the nerve gear on his head. The moment he pressed the power button, the time displayed once again. 12:59. 1 more minute. He tried to distract himself by closing his eyes. He thought back to the game. The feeling of running around the perfect atmosphere. He opened his eyes. 13:00. It was time.

"Link Start!" were the last words he ever said aloud. The nerve gear immediately shut down all motor functions of his body, and brought him into the game once more.

Diavel found himself in the main plaza of the Town of Beginnings. He instantly was at home again. Crowds of people had already spawned in, and more followed every second. Diavel made his way to the edge of the plaza and slowly began to walk around town. It was beautiful, as if he had returned to a dream. Most of the NPCs were the same, as were landmarks and quests. It probably would only stay that way for the first few days. According to some articles he had read, the game had an automated system to create quests, levels, and monsters in the most fair and balanced way possible. It adapted to the player's actions, abilities, and choices. Each NPC had its own basic memory that allowed it to have individual relations to every single person inside the game. Even if most everything was the same, there would be minor changes in all the interactions.

When he had finally calmed himself down, Diavel instantly went to start some of the basic quests. It was only hours, before he had equipped himself with some of the best starting items that he could find. He thought back to what he should do next. He was tired of quests, and he wasn't up for any shopping yet. He considered that he could visit a town, or take on a dungeon. But the journey out would be dull on his own, and he hadn't spoken to anyone he was up for partying up with yet. He decided to find someone to form a party. He waved his hand to open the menu up and check his friends list. It was just as he had feared. When the profiles of all the beta testers was reset, all of their friends were removed.

It didn't matter much anyways, most of the people that weren't in his guild had been one time meetups for boss raids, short term partying, or simply business partners. He tried to think back to the main members of his guild. Nesumiru, the leader, had sent out an email to most of the active members that she had forgotten to send in a request for an advanced copy of the game, the one privilege Argus gave to those who beta tested the game for them. That ruled her out.

Many others, such as KeruTaro or HoneyComb were impossible for him to find. They could be anywhere in town, and it was take hours to try and locate them. It would be easier to just form another party than hunting them.

After thinking for a while, Diavel finally thought of Ryu, the guild fool. He wasn't much of a fighter, nor even skilled in any aspect of the game. The only reason he wasn't kicked, was because he found a ton of new quests for the guild because he spent so much time at the tavern. Diavel never understood why either. The game had put a lot of effort into keeping a T-rating, so no effects of being drunk were applied. Yet Ryu always could be found in the same bar on the first floor.

Out of almost muscle memory, Diavel made his way to the Moonlit Tavern and Inn in the north side of town. Just as he suspected, Ryu was with his best friend Hirasho camped out in the back corner. Hirasho, unlike his buddy, was actually quite skilled at the game. He was practically Nesumiru's second in command on field, and only wasn't officially because of his awkward work schedule.

"Diavel!" Ryu called across the room. He waved a hand for Diavel to join them at the table. "Wow, I almost didn't recognize you without the blue hair." Diavel had almost completely forgotten. Early into the beta, he found a hair dye item from a quest. When inspecting it, he accidently used it on himself, giving his hair a shade of bright blue. It quickly became a running joke in the guild, and earned him several nicknames. He resolved that he was going to change it back, but he was so focused on training and playing the game that he kept forgetting to find the shop for it.

"Oh," Diavel remarked, "Yeah, I completely forgot it removed the dye."

"Well, guess you finally got it fixed, didn't ya," Hirasho said. All three of them laughed. "So, I see you've already gotten yourself out there with the NPCs, haven't ya," he commented. Diavel smiled.

"Yeah, I figured I might as well use the practice for something," he replied, "I'm surprised you haven't yourself."

"Well, I would," said Hirasho, "but this buffoon's been keeping me busy here all day. Let's have a drink, go talk to her, maybe a game of cards, check that, one more drink."

"Eh, you know you love me," Ryu laughed. Hirasho rolled his eyes and took a sip from his cup.

"Say, you want anything?" He asked.

"I've finished seventeen quests in the past four hours," Diavel answered, "I can buy something for myself." Hirasho practically did a spit take.

"Four hours?!" He exclaimed, "Holy-" He opened the menu to check the time. It was five thirty. "Sorry guys, I've gotta go."

"What, but Diavel just got here!" Ryu complained.

"Work," Hirasho said.

Diavel watched as Hirasho switched over to find the logout button. He scrambled through the menus. After a few moment, he suddenly stopped. "Where is it?" he exclaimed.

"Where's what?"

"The logout button!" he said, "It should be right here! It's empty!" Ryu and Diavel moved over to look at the menu.

"Are you sure you opened the right part of the menu?" Ryu asked.

"No, maybe I opened my inventory," Hirasho said sarcastically, "Of course I did!" Diavel quickly tried opening his menu. Sure enough, there was no way to leave the game.

"That's weird," he said, "I don't have one either." Ryu check as well, and discovered he couldn't leave as well. Quickly, the entire bar began to get involved in the lengthy debate about what happened to the logout button.

"Maybe it's a bug?" Ryu suggested. All three of them had sat back down with another round of drinks.

"No, the button's just blank, and doesn't react when someone touches it." Diavel said. "This can't be an accident. Not if it's been like this all day."

"Are you suggesting this was intentional?" Hirasho asked.

"We can't rule out any options."

The answer was soon to be revealed to them. Just as Ryu was about to speak, a mass teleport brought all the players to the spawn. At incredible precision as well. Although none recognized it at the time, Ryu later remarked how well everyone was kept together with everyone they were with before the warp.

A hexagon grid dome quickly surrounded the main plaza. Blood-like red liquid began to drip from the top, forming into the shape of a large, cloaked figure. Discussions broke out, assumptions were made. Nobody understood what was going on in front of them. Nobody knew who the shadowy person above them was, nor could they understand what was happening. Because of all the talking, few could tell you exactly what it said first. But it wasn't important. Just as everyone quieted down was when things became important.

"My name," it said, "Is Akihiko Kayaba, and I welcome you to my world. And your world, until you manage to escape."

Most of his speech is well known. Although Sword Art Online's Cardinal System is so secure that almost nothing from inside the game can be accessed, Kayaba made a deliberate choice to have a recording of his speech streamed on the internet for the world to understand. It was depressing for anyone to watch, inside the game or not. Learning that the players had to defeat the final boss of the game, without taking a single death struck the entire world with an enormous blow. Many described it as terrorism, however it couldn't officially be described as such. Kayaba had nothing to gain from the move, nothing he asked for, and nothing he wanted. Everything was right in front of him.

Diavel couldn't believe what he was hearing when the words were spoken to the players. He had school the next day, and Hirasho was already late for work. They couldn't possibly be trapped inside the game. But he didn't have a choice on the matter of believing it. Just as the speech ended, everyone in the game began scrambling to figure out what to do. Some people tried to move on to the next town. Some stood still, stuck in the plaza from fear. Diavel, Ryu, and Hirasho made their way down the street to the market.

"What are we going to do?" Ryu asked, for the fifth time.

"I don't know!" Hirasho yelled at him, "We're stuck!"

"We could do as he says and try moving forward in the game," Ryu suggested.

"And play right into his palm?" Hirasho continued screaming, "We don't even know if what he said was true. We might not die like he said."

"Oh, you wanna test that?"

"Guys, calm down," Diavel requested. The two friend looked at him and stopped arguing. "Look, I think Ryu is right. The best choice right now is to play the game."

"See, told you," Ryu bragged. Diavel gave him a nasty look, and he stopped.

"Then what do you suggest, Bluebell?" Hirasho asked him.

"Well," Diavel answered, "I'd say we should find the floor boss. It's that Orc king or something, right? It took us about a week to find it in the beta. If we take a party and go hunting, we'll find it."

"And then?"

"Then," he said, "We keep doing that. Until we lead everyone and beat Sword Art Online."


	4. Chapter 4

"My son convinced me to get him Sword Art Online for his birthday. I gathered up all my savings to buy the game and the system. I even bought him a new computer. I'll never forgive whoever's idea it was to take him away from me. To trap all these people in this death game. Please, somebody. Save my son!"

(Momoka Hikutasu, Mother of a Victim _NHK World_ )

Chapter 4:

Kirito in the meeting room with his council. It took less than an hour for the other advisors to assemble upon hearing the news. None of them could quite believe it. It was astounding enough that someone found the boss room, but that those people came to _them_ for help was a bit much to take in. IceQueen had asked to bring in her two most trusted advisors. Her sister IcePrincess, and her second in command, Tafkar. Each visitor was given a chair at the table with the rest of the council.

"If everyone is ready," Kirito said aloud, "We might as well get things started. Now, do all of you know why I called the emergency meeting?"

"Yeah," Kazehi grumbled, "Night told us."

"Oh, right," said Kirito, grumpily. "Well, I guess IceQueen can explain it in further detail, if you would like to." He turned to give her the signal to begin explaining, but she had already stood up to speak.

"As you have heard," she began, "my name is IceQueen, I'm leader of a smaller guild of about seventeen people known as Iron Wall."

"Yeah, yeah, we've heard," Kibaou complained, "Get on with the important details."

"Okay, sorry," IceQueen said, looking a little hurt, "Just yesterday, a party of five of our members lead by Tafkar here, was exploring the dungeon when they discovered the location of the boss room. As shown on the map, it's hidden on floor sixteen of the dungeon, after a long series of hallways."

"Um," Agil interrupted, "I might suggest using a different term for floors inside a dungeon, so that we don't confuse them with the floors of Aincrad."

"Fine," IceQueen said, with a tone of annoyance, "The sixteenth _level_ of the dungeon. Anyways, as soon as they discovered the boss room, Tafkar immediately reported back to me about the discovery. I, of course had them show me the boss room, and I can confirm the boss is there."

"No offense," Kazehi said, "But could you explain why we're involved here?"

"Yes," IceQueen said, "Of course. I brought the whole guild in the fight the boss, but unfortunately, it was too strong. Everyone was able to retreat via the door and by use of teleport crystals, but it was just too powerful for us. And because you guys were the people who fought the previous boss, I figured that your experience could help us in fighting this one."

After a momentary pause, Kirito finally spoke up to break the silence. "I guess that's reasonable. We can bring a large group to join your guild for a raid."

"Wait just a moment!" Kibaou yelled, "How do we know we can trust this girl? She came out of nowhere, with nothing but a map to prove her point! And we're just going to blindly march into battle with her?"

"Hey! My sister wouldn't lie to you!" IcePrincess yelled back at him.

"Kibaou has a point," Agil agreed, "Sorry miss Queen, but we should have some proof that you actually found the boss room before we send a whole army to join you."

"I could show one of your guys where the boss room is," Tafkar suggested, "I'd be willing to just to get him to shut up." He sent a nasty glare at Kibaou.

"I think that's a fair compromise," Kirito agreed, "Kazehi, Kibaou. You two go with Tafkar into the dungeon. And Agil and Night can be in charge of organizing everyone to prepare for the boss raid. I assume Queen will prepare the Iron Wall members."

"What will you be doing?" Kazehi grumbled.

"I have somebody I need to talk to," he said, "I want to gather some information on the boss."

"Can't we just use the guide book? That's what we used before we attacked," IceQueen asked. All of the members of Legacy looked at her as if she was mad.

"I want to get some more information just in case," Kirito said. "There can be changes to the boss from the beta. Better safe than sorry." He stood up from his chair. "If we have no more objections," he paused to see if anyone had something more to say, "Then I believed this meeting is adjourned."

Kirito left the guild house quickly, leaving Agil in charge of the organization of the military and finishing discussions of strategy with the others. He opened up his menu and tapped his friends list. There, plain as day,, he found Argo's profile. He quickly sent her a message to meet in same tavern as before.

"I got your message," Argo sprinted up to Kirito's table nearly an hour later, "I came as quickly as I could. What's wrong?" Kirito took a bite of his sandwich before answering. Argo watched impatiently as she slid into the chair across from him.

"I want all the information you have on Baran the Tauros General," Kirito asked her. Argo looked slightly stunned.

"You found it?" She shrieked, only barely able to keep it quiet enough not to disturb the others in the room. "You found the boss room?"

"I didn't," Kirito explained, "But the people who did are working with the Legacy members to raid the boss, so I figured I might as well go out and pick up what you left out of the guide."

"What do you mean what I 'left out of the guide'?" She shuddered.

"Argo," Kirito smirked, "You made it pretty obvious that you're the author. There's no use trying to hide it. All I'm asking is what do you know that could help us against the boss." Argo stared at him with a hint of anger.

"You're lucky," she finally spoke, "Most everything I know is in the book. Baran the Tauros General and Tauros Colonel Nato. Both of them have similar attack patterns, one has _Numbing Impact_ while the other has _Numbing Detonation_. Both of them are weak in the horns, and Baran is stronger. It should all be there." She paused for a breath. "But I did find a few new quests that could reveal something about the changes to the fight. I haven't finished though."

"Anything you know so far?"

"All I can say is something will be different," she sighed, "Have you sent any scouts in at least?"

"The guild who found the boss room tried attacking once," Kirito explained, "But I don't know what they saw."

"Try and find out for me, will you?" Argo begged, "I don't want something like Diavel to happen again."

"Listen, that wasn't your fault," Kirito reassured her, "There was nothing anyone could've done."

"I know," she said, almost on the brink of tears. "But I still feel awful." She turned away from Kirito and looked out the window. He tried to think of something more to say, but he lacked a good response. "What's the name of the guild you're working with?" she asked without turning back to address him in any way. "I might as well look them up while I'm at it."

"Iron Wall," Kirito answered, "Two words. Lead by a player named IceQueen. Capital I and Q. One word, no underscores." Argo took a piece of paper and wrote down the information.

"Capital I and Q, one word. Got it. I'll look them up," she stood up from the table, "I need to get back to the quest. It's timed. Good luck on the raid. I'll message you if I find anything new." Before Kirito could even say goodbye, she was gone. He decided to finish his food before travelling back home to the guild.

By the time he had returned to the guild, much of day had gone by. Kibaou and Kazehi had already returned from their expedition with reports of success. Grudgingly, they both admitted Iron Wall had indeed beaten Legacy to the boss room. Meanwhile, Agil had finally gathered a majority of the members of the two guilds.

"Kirito," he said as the leader entered into the property, "I see you've returned. Was your mission successful?"

"I didn't learn much," he shrugged, "But I think it could lead to some useful info later. How is everyone here?"

"We divided up the players into squadrons again," Agil explained, "Although there was some debate on whether we should mix guilds or not."

"Did you?" Kirito inquired.

"No, Queen said it was too risky," Agil continued, "It would be easier to make more divisions if each guild operated separately in their parties. She's smart, for being a new guild leader."

"You say that like you were in the beta!" Kirito laughed, "Everyone is new, practically."

"I mean she's never lead a guild in any MMO before," Agil clarified, "Iron Wall is her first time in any form of leadership position." Kirito's mouth gaped open.

"You're kidding."

"No, it's true," IceQueen walked up to them from inside the building. "I founded Iron Wall only so my friends and I could share a house easily. We just happen to find some more players who wanted to join, and here we are. Anyways, welcome back Kirito. Did you find who you were wanting to talk to?"

"Yeah," said Kirito, "But they don't have the info I want yet. Agil says you guys got everyone grouped up."

"Indeed we did," IceQueen grinned with delight, "We decided on keeping squads entirely of one guild to limit the confusion. Well, except for archers. We didn't have enough from Iron Wall to form a full party, so we just grouped them all together."

"Yeah, he mentioned that as well," Kirito told her.

"I'll reassemble the council for strategizing," Agil offered, "If we're lucky, we can take down the boss by tomorrow."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Kirito agreed. Agil walked off to round up the other heads of the guild. Kirito was about to follow him, when IceQueen stopped him.

"One more thing I want to talk to you about," she said.

"Yeah?" Kirito curiously asked.

"We should have a way to retreat from the boss in case any of the players are too low on health," IceQueen proposed, "Just in case."

"What do you mean?" Kirito was slightly confused, "You mean a retreat call to exit the boss room if something goes wrong?"

"No, I mean if a player is low on health they can get out on their own last second," IceQueen said. "Maybe give a teleport crystal to everyone as backup."

"Like a failsafe?" Kirito was slightly suspicious of her idea. It seemed sound, but teleport crystals were not cheap. Especially that early into the game. "Propose it to the others. If they're for it, then we can try it."

"Okay," IceQueen smiled. "I'll suggest it to them."

"Absolutely not!" Night practically yelled when he heard the proposal. The advisors of both guilds had assembled together. As soon as the strategy meeting began, IceQueen explained her idea for teleport crystals. Night was not for the idea. "Between the two guilds we have nearly thirty-five people going in to fight the boss! A teleport crystal for every single person would cost us 63,000 cor! We can't just throw away half the guild's vaults on a single boss!"

"You won't need to use them all on a single boss if everyone lives," IceQueen reminded him.

"That's still a lot money," Night growled.

"If I remember from the beta, we did have some trouble on Baran," recalled Kazehi. "But that was in small parties of seven. Not two guilds working together."

"Everything seemed to be the same as the guidebook suggested," Tafkar noted, "They seemed to be a bit stronger, but that was to be expected."

"It may be ideal to have some form of backup plan," Kibaou argued, "I don't want to end up like Diavel if I can help it. Or anyone else for the matter."

"We have nearly a hundred thousand cor stored up," Night reminded them, "I don't think we should spend it on such a simple concept."

"Oh shut up, you aren't even raiding!" Kibaou accused.

"Actually, you can take off the price for Iron Wall," IceQueen said, "I already have my players supplied with them. We're good."

"That saves us fourteen crystals," Agil nodded. "How much would the other twenty-one cost?"

"37,500 cor," Night already had the answer in his head, "Good job. You brought us down to only a third of our money."

"I propose we take a vote on the matter," Kirito said, "All for the teleport crystals?" He, Kibaou, and Agil all raised their hands. "All against?" Kazehi and Night raised their hands, but they knew they already had lost the vote. "I think that's settled. Night?"

"I'll buy them after the meeting," Night mumbled in response.

The rest of the strategy meeting went smoothly. Kirito and Kazehi used some of their knowledge of the boss to give an outline, while the others proposed new ideas and plans of attack. Within half an hour, the raid was carefully designed and precisely detailed. Kazehi was appointed to be commander during the fight and was placed in charge of squadron A. Kibaou and Agil agreed to lead the other two parties from Legacy, squadrons B and C respectively. IceQueen and Tafkar took D and E, the two Iron Wall squads, and IcePrincess took the archers, who weren't given any name for their squad other than the very creative title "the archers". Kirito chose to fight under Kazehi. He didn't trust himself enough to properly order other players around on the field, but understood that if he was fighting on his own it could make others question him as a good leader.

After the meeting, Kirito sent Argo a quick PM about the plans to raid the next day, and told her that there wasn't much of a change from the beta in the boss other than a small power boost. Nevertheless, she still replied that she was going to continue the quests, and would let him know if she found something.

The following day, the two guilds set off at 9:00 in the morning to enter the dungeon. Kirito checked with Argo if she had finished her quest, but he received no reply. With no choice, he entered the dungeon with the rest of the guild on the long march to the boss room. At 11:26, they finally arrived outside the large door. With one final heal, Kazehi made sure everyone was prepared before leading them in.

The door creaked open to a large, circular room. There was no decoration of pillars or furniture, except for a ring of torches at the end. The players walked towards the center of the room, eyes open for when the bosses would spawn. When everyone was in the center of the room, a large crash echoed through the room. It came from two large bulls landing on either side of the room. To the left was the lesser boss, Nato the Colonel Tauros. The large humanoid bull-like creature was proud, muscular, and had two horns on his head. He was twice as tall as any of the players, and carried a large two handed hammer. He stood bare chested, with only a cloth covering his lower body.

To the right stood his superior, Baran the General Tauros. Two times as tall as his minion, he too carried a large hammer and wore a silk cloth, both coloured in gold. He let off a large roar leading both bosses to attack.

"Everyone ready?" Kazehi yelled, "Now go! A, B, and C, attack Baran! D and E take on Nato! Archers, stay in the middle and give ranged support! Charge!" The players listened to the orders without any hesitation. Quickly, everyone began carefully using sword skills and other attack to fend off the boss.

Kirito fought with the rest of squad A. Just like the rest of the players in his group, he ran at Baran with full power. Slashing and dodging, everyone slowly whittled down the first of his five HP gauges. Baran raised his hammer to strike his special skill, _Numbing Impact_. Kirito jumped briskly to the left to evade, but other players weren't as quick. Several members of squads A and B took major damage, and were left stunned for three seconds.

"Arg," Kazehi grumbled, "A and B, move back! C attack!" The unstunned players make their retreat backwards as fast as they could. Unfortunately, those who were stuck weren't ready for the command stumbled over and were hit by several other hits.

"Sorry commander!" one yelled, "I need to retreat. I'm out of healing crystals." He raised up a teleport crystal and warped out. Quickly following, many others did the same. Squad A and B were each decreased to four players a party.

Across the room, things were doing better for Iron Wall. They had taken out one of the three health bars of the Taurus Colonel already. However, not without casualties. A few of their players had retreated out after reaching low health. It was obvious the battle wasn't going well. Player after player used a crystal to make a haste escape, leaving less and less to fight the boss.

By the time Baran was down his first health bar, squad C was also low on players, and by the second, all of squad B, with the exception Kibaou, had retreated. Although the force fighting Nato had brought him to his last guage, they were down to a mere collective of 6 players from both groups. However, there was nobody extra to send in to support them, and progress slowed. The archers were dealing more damage to each of the bosses than the foot soldiers, but that wasn't saying much.

"Guys," Agil boomed, "I think we should retreat. We can't win this."

"No!" Kazehi practically begged, as she jumped out of the way of another hammer swing from the bull. "We can't."

"He's right!" Kirito agreed, "We can't win." He desperately blocked a combo of attacks from the boss. "Even I'm reaching yellow." Kazehi looked around the room, and dismay filled her. Saddened, she jumped back and called to the whole team.

"Everyone," she yelled, "We can't win. I call an all retreat now!" As soon as it began to register in the minds of the players what she was saying, they began to each teleport out. One by one, Iron Wall and Diavel's Legacy made an escape from the boss room. Kirito waited to make sure everyone was out. He tried to fend off the boss just long enough so that they were all safe. Finally, the last player disappeared into small diamonds. Kirito grabbed the teleport crystal from his belt and clenched it in his hand. After a brief pause of regret, he tapped the trigger and left, with a hint of disappointment in his eyes. And a stronger feeling than ever, to keep up the push.


	5. Chapter 5

"Sword Art Online should never have been released to the public. Our programmers had no knowledge of Kayaba's plot, nor any part. We are currently working on a way to shut down."

(Minato Genji, Argus Public Relations Representative)

Chapter 5:

Diavel's sword skill activated just as he finished off another Sage Snake. It broke into particles instantly, and disappeared into nothing. Once the system confirmed Diavel was out of combat, a small window popped up to show the drops. 48 experience, 26 col, both rewarding, but it wasn't what he was looking for. He check the below to see if he got items. Unfortunately, he turned up with nothing.

"Damn," he mumbled to himself. Ten Silver Snakeskins were all he needed to finish the collection quest "Snake's Magic". He had only managed to pick up six in the past hour. For an upgraded pair of pants, it was questionable whether it was worth it. He decided to take a break and see if the other two had done any better. It only took him a couple minutes to find Hirasho and Ryu near the entrance of the forest sitting on a fallen tree. "Hey," he greeted casually as he sat down next to them.

"Hey man!" Ryu exclaimed, "Hungry?" He held up a sandwich in his hand. Diavel nodded, and his friend handed him his lunch.

"How's your guy's luck been?" Diavel asked after he bit into his sandwich. "I've only found six so far."

"I got seven," Hirasho bragged.

"Of course you did," Diavel sighed. "Ryu?"

"Hm?"

"How many did you get?" Diavel asked again.

"Oh, three." The other two players looked at him blankly.

"Three?" Hirasho exclaimed, "I thought you said you had seven as well!"

"Yeah," Ryu said, "I lied. A little." Diavel rolled his eyes.

"We need fourteen more to finish the quest for each of us," he said, "That's better than we were at the beginning of the day.

"Actually," Ryu said, "I don't want whatever item it gives." The others looked at him in shock.

"Why not?" Hirasho finally asked.

"I'm not going to be doing much fighting anyways," Ryu explained, "I'd rather just be an information broker. A ton of beta testers are doing it. Apparently they can make killer cash by just talking about what they know."

"How much do you even remember about the different stuff on the beta?" Diavel questioned.

"Enough for me to make some basic trades first," he noted. "And whatever I don't remember I'll ask you guys for help. Then we can share the profit. It's a win-win." Diavel and Hirasho made brief, but expressive eye contact. Ryu wasn't the most organized in keeping info in his head. And neither of them expected him to make it very far.

"Fine," Hirasho answered, "If that's what you wanna do. Go ahead." There wasn't much point in arguing. Their friend was probably going to end up giving up and moving on to something else anyways.

Hirasho and Diavel finished gathering the remaining four snakeskins before they returned to Horunka, the town they deemed home. Each of them equipped the Ribbon Pants once they received their prize for the quest. It was a decent early game item. It gave a boost of +2 agility, which was a fair boost for floor one. Most of them day was spent in town checking different trades with the NPCs and talking with players, before they finally returned to the inn for the night.

Over the next few days, Hirasho and Diavel continued to complete quests around floor one to continue gathering money, items, and experience. Ryu spent most of his time searching for information to buy, trade, or sell. Hirasho joked he was only trying to spend more time in the bar, but nevertheless he seemed to be making a small profit every day from his adventures, so no one ever told him to stop.

During a visit to Tolbana, Diavel and Hirasho took a look at one of the larger player-run shops in town. The owner, Gatur, housed most of the basic adventuring necessities. He even held a few teleport crystals in stock, a luxury that early in the game. It was there that the pair ran into Gripnaw and his friends.

Diavel saw a tall man, only a few years older than him, holding a large sword in his hand across the shop examining a slightly rare shield. Helpfully, he walked over the man to give him a tip.

"You can get a better upgraded one from a quest here in Tolbana," he told the man, "Only takes half an hour or so to complete." The man turned to look at the other player who had just approached.

"Really?" he asked, "Could you show me where? My friends and I have been searching for some upgrades for a while now. I can even show you some of the quests we've finished. Sound good?" Diavel glanced towards his partner across the shop, who only shrugged.

"Sure," Diavel accepted, "My name's Diavel. Yours?"

"Gripnaw," the man shook Diavel's hand. These are Hyuran, Kamane, and Yurihara." A trio of other players waved. The boy of the three, who Diavel could only assume to be Hyuran, walked over and shook his hand politely.

"Glad to meet you."

Hyrun had dark hair, and looked quite short. He seemed to be no older than fifteen, and had a large spear on his back. Her had basic green armor on, with still the earliest pants and shoes. Next to him was Kamane, a girl who was probably a year or two older than him. She also had similar green armor, most likely from the same quest. A large bow was mounted on her back. Finally was Yurihara, a woman much older than the other two. In her early twenties, she had a sword equipped, as well as some purple armor.

Diavel, and Hirasho joined their party on their quest for the experience. However, it was quickly realized how well the team worked together. They started several other quests afterwards, clearing them in less than half the time Diavel's party would normally. It wasn't half the day gone before Gripnaw invited both players to be permanent members of their group.

"Really?" Diavel was shocked when the offer was made. He didn't expect an offer to join them at all, especially not one so hasteful.

"We all agree," Yurihara smiled, "You two have been a tremendous help."

"Yeah!" Kamane laughed, "You two are awesome."

"Well we were needing a new place to stay," Hirasho remembered, "Although, we may need to ask Ryu about this."

"Ryu?" Gripnaw asked curiously.

"He's a friend of ours," Diavel explained, "Information broker. Supposedly."

"Well, a friend of yours is a friend of ours," Gripnaw laughed. "Go find him and meet us at the tavern down the road. Then we can get some rooms for all of you."

Ryu had no objection to the relocation. In fact, Tolbana was much more of an information hub, and would be a much better location for him to be based either way. So the trio moved in with their new party, and began to feel settled in with their new friends.

It was a few days later that Diavel sat in a room with Kamane and Ryu discussing some of the new information that the information broker had discovered.

"So what has the great Ryu have for us today?" Diavel joked at his friend. Ryu rolled his eyes.

"Most of the stuff is the same," Ryu said, "Stuff I've told you before, or guidebook info." Diavel remembered the guidebook well. He had spent many nights looking over the notes collected by the beta testers. It had saved his life many a time. "You know, some wandering mobs, quests, et cetera."

"Yes, yes you're wasting our time, we know," Kamane laughed. Ryu looked slightly hurt. "Sorry," she apologized, "Go on."

"Well," Ryu continued, "There are some new quests opening up. More collections, a few monster hunting, nothing new. I also learned of a few skilled players around town that seemed to be well off on levels. I have the list somewhere here." He looked through his inventory desperately, but with a quick glance it seemed to be to no avail. "Then there's a new mini boss that's been spotted in the mountain area to the south. Apparently it's fairly strong."

"Did somebody say boss?" Hirasho entered through the door, with a cheerful grin on his face.

"Well someone looks happy today," Diavel observed. His friend seemed to be holding back a chuckle.

"Indeed I am," confirmed Hirasho.

"Might I ask why?" Diavel inquired.

"Do you want to know why?"

"I believe I do."

"You want the truth?"

"I do."

"You can't handle the truth!" Hirasho remarked sarcastically.

"Could you please just say why you're so happy?" Kamene demanded.

"Fine," Hirasho calmed himself, "It's because of this." Out from his pocket, he withdrew a small vial of a blue substance. Diavel knew it well. It was Mermaid Lapis. The very item that he had accidently used to dye his hair blue, and receive countless amounts ridicule from his entire guild. Ryu held up his hand to give his friend a high five.

"You found it!" Ryu laughed, "Great job!" Diavel began to put the pieces together in his mind quickly.

"You told him where to get that?" he demanded from Ryu.

"Well," the information broker began, "I was looking around for new quests yesterday, and I came across a certain quest that gave a certain item, and…"

"He told me about it," Hirasho was struggling not to laugh, "Come on, man. For old times sake."

"Wait," Kamane asked curiously, "What is this all about?"

"Nothing!" Diavel snapped, "It's… Just something from the beta."

"Oh come on," Ryu begged, "It'd be so much easier to find you! You'd stick out like a sore thumb. A sore, blue thumb."

"Tell you what," Hirasho proposed, "Ryu, you said there was a mini-boss, right?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "Some big wolf monster. As far as I've heard, it wasn't even in the beta."

"What about this," Hirasho smirked in a way that could only mean trouble, "We fight the boss together. Just you and I. If I get the last hit, you use the hair dye. Sound fair?"

"And what about if I kill the boss?" Diavel asked, untrustingly. Hirasho sighed as he rolled his eyes.

"If you somehow get the hit," he slowly began, "I guess I'll wear your special hair dye." Diavel weighed his options.

"For how long will this be?" he inquired. "A month?"

"Two."

"Why not three?"

"Six."

"Deal."

"Then it's settled," Hirasho smiled, "Shall we set off now?"

"I see no reason not to," Diavel answered. "As soon as you're ready."

The pair listened to the description Ryu had on the boss known as the Ravenous Torch Wolf. Little was known more than it's location in a forest just outside of Gildon, a town not to far from Tolbana. The boss mostly attacked with its fangs, but had a nasty habit of setting itself on fire. No party had beaten it, most hadn't even paid it much thought. Yet the two adventures entered in their dual party into the grove it was found it, with a party of friends excited for the competition.

"Ready?" Hirasho called.

"Course!" Diavel answered. They engaged the boss head on. The wolf first began targeting Diavel, using a medium powered scratching move to knock him back. He countered it easily with his sword, giving Hirasho the opening to strike.

"Letting me hit it already, are ya?" his friend laughed as he took multiple swings of his sword to the side of the wolf. The enemy quickly reengaged its agro off Diavel and onto its new threat.

"As if!" Diavel took the opportunity to get to the beast's back and slash at the tail. The wolf howled, and took a fiery jaw smash on Hirasho. Unfortunately, the swordsman couldn't evade quickly enough at was hit by the strong blow. "You okay?" Diavel called.

"Fine!" his friend said as he jumped up, "Just a bit of damage, not much."

They continued going back and forth at the wolf, whittling down its three giant health bars. Once they finally cleared the first bar, the wolf entered into a rage. Standing on end, all the fur on the boss's body set ablaze.

"Looks like we're just getting started," Diavel laughed. Both sides of the battle began to put in even more effort. To a spectator, it would be impossible to say who was winning. Every large set of health taken from the wolf led the a scorched claw, or a burning toothful on the players. But as the battle came close to closing, it slowly grew more obvious. Diavel and Hirasho were only just reaching red health when wolf was only one or two hits away from death.

"Time for nothing!" Diavel called to his friend and he took a strike on the monster's back. He quickly saw his mistake, he used much more powerful of a sword art than he normally had, but it wasn't enough to take down the wolf, and he left Hirasho with a clear shot to victory. His friend took the opportunity with grace, sailing a blow to the wolf. With a last attempt, the wolf slashed at his oppressor in hopes to survive. It was no use. It only brought Hirasho into the red, giving him a clear shot at victory.

The monster fell to the ground in front of them as it died. Diavel sighed, and watched as his friend placed a victorious foot on the body of the boss.

"Well, looks like I win," Hirasho smiled. "Guess it's ti-" In a shocking instant, the body of the wolf bursted with a fiery explosion, knocking everyone back. Smoke was in the air, and panic filled the party.

"Guys?" someone called out, "Are you okay?" The smoke and dust was thick. Diavel had only barely survived the explosion. A window popped up with his rewards, but he closed it to figure out what was going on. Barely fifteen health left. He could only bare make out what he assumed to be Ryu, Kamane, Gripnaw, and the rest of the party rushing in.

"Hirasho!" Diavel exclaimed, jumping up to where his friend was standing when the boss died. The smoke cleared, and the entire group saw what was left. The space where a wolf and player stood was only occupied by a floating gem, a trophy that only meant one thing.

"No!" Ryu yelled, running to the gem. "It can't be… Hirasho… He's…"

"Dead," Gripnaw finished. "He's gone." The large man held out a health potion for Diavel. The weakened survivor reached for the item until he was stopped by a voice.

"No!" Ryu cried, "Don't give it to him." He gave a dead look at Diavel. "It's your fault he's dead. You two had to have your fight, didn't you!" Diavel was silent. He had no answer. "Well?! Say something!"

"I- I'm," Diavel stuttered, "Sorry…"

" _Sorry_?!" Ryu laughed dementedly, "My best friend is dead! His items are right there! And all you can say is _sorry_?!" Ryu stood up. "You know what, take them. You got him killed. They're yours to keep. I'm leaving." He began to walk out of the grove.

"Ryu, wait!" Kamane called.

"I said I'm leaving! So let me be in peace!" The broker silently made his way away. Nobody else tried to stop him. They all just sadly looked as he left. Once he was out of view, all eyes fell to Diavel. He was frozen. Unsure of what to do, he slowly walked over to the gem. He let out a deep sigh, and opened the menu to see what his friend had. He tried to ignore the looks of horror from his friends as he practically mugged his dead friend, but had little choice. He grabbed everything he could fit that was useful, so he could sort through it later. Mostly for mementos. Finally, he closed the window and turned to his party in silence.

"Let's go home guys," Gripnaw suggested, "Let's just go home."

Diavel sat in his room alone two days later. He held an item in his hand, unsure what to do with it. Most of Hirasho's stuff was divided amongst the party, or sold. But he had held one item that he knew was his responsibility to deal with. A small vial of Mermaid Lapis. He had lost the bet. He deserved the make over.

Nobody else cared anymore. They knew Diavel felt awful, and weren't going to push it. "You don't have to do it. It wasn't your fault," Yurihara had tried to console him earlier. But he casted her off. He lost. He knew what he had to do.

Diavel read the description of the item once again. A simple hair dye. What could be so wrong. His hand shook as tapped the "use" button. In an instant, his hair flashed from its dark black to the bright sky blue. The dye dissolved into two dimensional diamonds in his hand. He took a deep breath.

"So you finally did it, then," Diavel whirled around at the sound of the voice. Ryu stood in the open window. "I'll admit, I didn't think you would." Diavel's friend had completely changed appearance since they last saw each other. His festive light armor had been replaced with a hooded cloak, and a dark overtone. He tossed a small ring at Diavel, who just barely caught it.

"Hirasho bought that to go with your hair," he explained, "I was holding onto it for him." Diavel analyzed the golden ring. It was simple, with a blue gem in the center. A inscription was carved inside. "I added that," Ryu saw Diavel noticed the writing. "I figured it's a good lesson we both learned, isn't it." Diavel was silent. "I'll be leaving now. You'll know where to find me. But I suggest you don't." Without another word from either of them, Ryu leaped out of the window.

Diavel stared at the ring. He read the inscription over and over again. "Trust no one." He knew that was a lesson he had to follow. Yet he didn't understand why Ryu added the latter portion. "But make everyone trust you." It didn't matter anymore though. The words were right. And he would take them to his grave. He looked out of his window to the town below him. He was going to rescue everyone from the game. Or he was going to die trying.


	6. Chapter 6

"213 deaths have been reported since the beginning of Sword Art Online due to the removal nervegear since, according to Akihiko Kayaba. The government has begun relocating any victims of the incident to local hospitals in hopes to help maintain them in their vegetative state, and are currently gathering the files on all people trapped in the game. Hopefully we'll have more information soon."

(Seki Murkami, Reporter _NHK World_ )

Chapter 6:

"That was it?!" Kibaou gave an outburst once the leaders of the raid were back in the meeting room. "The strongest guild in the game and we couldn't even dent the boss!"

"Hey, that's not true! We dealt some decent damage to it!" Kazehi seemed to have a slight residue of tears in her eyes. The game seemed to do a remarkable job of replicating crying virtually.

"Some damage," Tafkar chuckled, "You barely put a scratch in its health." It was no secret Iron Wall had more success in their half of the fight than Legacy did.

"At least we didn't have any casualties," IcePrincess smiled, trying to give a glimmer of a silver lining.

"Yeah, at great cost to our guild's vault," Night mumbled.

"It worked, didn't it?" IceQueen seemed to have the lightest mood out of everyone there.

"She's right," Agil agreed, "The teleport crystals probably saved lives."

"Probably," Night noted, "Everyone could've gotten out fine."

"Listen," Kirito took a deep breath, "Can we all just get some rest and discuss this tomorrow morning? Today's raid was a bust. There's no denying that. Tomorrow we can get up and plan for another attack."

"If there'll be another attack," Kibaou grumbled.

"There will be," IceQueen smiled, "We can't back down this early, can we?"

"Why are you so happy?!" Kazehi lashed out, "Did you want us to fail at beating the boss?"

"On the contrary, I'm happy because I know we still can," IceQueen nodded, "I agree with Kirito, let's sleep on it. Tomorrow we can come up with another plan." The rest of the players were too tired to argue any further, and simply shrugged or nodded their head.

"Alright then," Kirito said, "Get some rest. We'll reconvene after breakfast." The council dismissed themselves one by one. Kirito waited for everyone to leave before he exited himself. He opened his menu to see a message had been sent. He opened it to find it was from Argo.

 _Heard you guys didn't do so hot. Up for a late dinner? I'll buy._

Kirito had no plans to meet up with the information broker. However, the free food did make it worth it enough to go out of his way. He quickly sent a response.

 _Sure, same place?_

It wasn't long before Kirito returned to the inn in Urbus and found Argo waiting in the tavern at a table. He sat himself down next to her, right as an NPC waiter walked up.

"About time," Argo smiled, "I was worried you wouldn't show."

"Well, I'm here," Kirito said. The two players spoke to the NPC and their food was almost instantly brought to them. "So, have you gotten anything from those quests yet?"

"I haven't had time," she sighed, "Have to actually sell the information I gather if I want to survive."

"Well, if you could hurry up that would be great," Kirito insisted, "If we're losing that badly without surprises yet, who knows what'll happen with them. I'd prefer some knowledge before going in again."

"I'll try," Argo assured him, "But I can't make any promises." For a short moment, each of them simply ate their food in brief silence. "So what's the plan now?"

"What do you mean?" Kirito asked, slightly confused.

"Your plan to defeat the boss, obviously," Argo clarified, "Do you have a better idea yet? Some new tactics planned?"

"I wish I did," Kirito muttered, "I don't know how people are so good at strategies. I usually just went solo."

"Yet here you are," Argo gestured at him, "In charge of the most famous guild in the game."

"I doubt that will last all that long," Kirito noted, "Everyone has already seemed to lose interest in us. At this rate, we'll be history by floor five."

"Oh, don't make me laugh," Argo smiled, "If you're involved in the take down of those bulls you'll be just as well known as you were before. If not more so."

"I don't know if I should hope so or hope not," Kirito remarked. Argo laughed.

"Only time will tell," she said.

"You know," Kirito started, "I could invite you to the guild.

"You must know that I can't," Argo regained her usual, more serious and calm expression, "The moment a broker chooses a guild is the moment she becomes an exclusive contractor."

"Well, I figured the offer would be polite," Kirito sighed.

"I should get going," Argo said, "You have a fair journey back home, and I should get some more research done tonight."

"You're right," Kirito opened his menu to check the time. It was nearly nine in the evening, and he didn't have plans to spend another night's sleep in Urbus. "Goodnight," he said. Argo only smiled and nodded, before disappearing out the door.

Diavel's Legacy's council met with the heads of Iron Wall once again the next morning at practically first dawn. Everyone looked more refreshed, but a similar gloom still resided above their heads, dampening the mood. Agil was the one who began the meeting that morning.

"I believe we should start our discussion sooner rather than later," he commented. "Do we have any plans for our next attack so far?"

"I think we could win this time if we just went back as we did," Kibaou suggested, "We have experience now."

"You really think one practice can make us that much better?" Kazehi seemed angry.

"Well maybe it was just your leadership that was the problem!"

"Hey, calm down!" Agil growled at Kibaou, "This is nobody's fault."

"No," Kazehi gained a saddened look on her face, "He's right. It is my fault. I failed as a leader."

"Sorry," Kibaou said, "I didn't actually mean to-"

"Don't be," Kazehi interrupted. "Pick someone else to lead the raid. I'm not a good general." She sulked into her seat, as tears began to form in her eyes.

"You did fine," Agil tried to reassure her, "It was your first experience with that large a group. With practice, you'll do better."

"Diavel did fine," Kazehi reminded him. Agil had no response. Instead, he tried to advance the discussion.

"Kirito, are you sure you don't want lead any of the squads?" the coated boy shook his head.

"I don't fight in groups very well," he admitted, "Guilds never really were my style in the first place. Better let someone else do the job."

"Could I lead the raid?" IceQueen piped up, having been waiting for the right moment. The room gave her their attention. "It's only fair, for my guild to get a turn this time."

"Are you sure?" Kirito asked.

"I may have a small guild," she smiled, "But I can handle a larger army. Besides, I think I have an idea for how we can defeat the boss."

"And what is that?" Kibaou asked smoothly.

"We have two issues," she began, "We don't have enough players, and the ones that we do aren't effectively equipped for a raid. Armor is too weak, out classed swords, we need to upgrade everyone."

"What are you suggesting?" Night sat on the edge of his seat.

"We have two preparations. One for each problem," IceQueen proposed, "First, we put up advertisements and search for players and guilds that are willing to help us in the battle. That way, we have a numbers on our side when we attack. Then, we work on equipping solo players that we recruit to join our guilds, as well as our own players."

"That could be really expensive," Night observed, "Especially on top of your teleport crystal idea."

"Scratch the crystals then," IceQueen told him, "They won't be useful to us with that many people."

"Do we have to equip the new players?" Kazehi asked.

"We can take new players and gear them up," Tafkar offered, "You help with your own people."

"That could work," Agil nodded, "What guilds are you suggesting?"

"Some of Diavel's party formed the Dragon Knights Brigade," recalled Kibaou, "I think I still know a couple of them. Maybe I can go find them?" Kirito remembered the Brigade members. Their leader, Lind, was in Diavel's party when the boss room was discovered, and had spoken out against the beta testers along with Kibaou after the end of the fight. Unlike Kibaou, he and his friends went on their own into floor two.

"Don't they hold a bit of a grudge against us?" Kazehi reminded him.

"Maybe I can talk some sense into Lind," Kibaou looked hopeful, "No sense not trying."

"We should focus on other guilds as well," IceQueen said, "Iron Wall will start recruiting players. Kirito, could you all work on finding alliances?"

"We can," Kirito said, "Anything else left for the meeting?" Nobody had much more to say, so Kirito said, "Then we're dismissed." The leader of Diavel's Legacy stood up. "Agil, Kazehi, you two start putting up advertisements for guilds to help us. Night, mind coming with me to do some research?"

"I don't at all," Night said, "Where are we going?"

"I want to meet up with an informant," Kirito told Night as he opened his menu. He once again found Argo in his friend list and sent her a message.

 _I need your help finding some guilds. Same place?_

"Oh, your girlfriend right?" Night smirked.

"Girlfriend?" Kirito's face almost turned white.

"Yeah, some of the guild members said you've been visiting some girl for dinner a lot recently," Night laughed, "That's who, I assume."

"She isn't my girlfriend," Kirito rolled his eyes, "She's just one of the more skilled information brokers in the game." It was then he received the answer from Argo.

 _Sorry, important quest. Timed. No time to talk. Maybe another broker could help you though. I think I have a guy. His name is Ryu. Apparently he knew Diavel, so he might be kinder to you than he is most people. You'll find him at the Moonlit Tavern. Town of Beginnings. Sorry. Talk to you later._

Kirito read the message twice to make sure he understood. "Change of plans, we're going to a bar," he said to Night as he gave Argo a quick reply of acknowledgement.

"Oh yay, we're giving up already, then?" Night rolled his eyes.

"No, but we have to find another broker," Kirito explained, "Argo suggested we talk to this guy in the Town of Beginnings."

"Ah, so your girlfriend has a name now!" Kirito instantly regretted calling her by name. He gave Night a dirty stare before started walking to the teleport gate in Urbus.

"Shut up and move," he ordered, and the friends made their way back to the start.

It was around lunch when Kirito and Night found the Moonlit Tavern. The place was filled with a great number of both players and NPCs. Argo hadn't given Kirito much more than a name, so he had little to go on to find the new broker.

"Who are we looking for exactly?" Night asked Kirito.

"I'm not exactly sure," he responded, "Maybe we can ask around." It was at that moment that Kirito saw a hooded player staring at him from a table in the back corner of the room. Kirito gestured for Night to follow him over. "Are you Ryu?" Kirito asked.

"You must be the one Argo was talking about," the player said, "Sit down, Kirito." Kirito and his partner obliged.

"Argo said you knew Diavel," the guild leader said.

"Bah, I _knew_ a Diavel," Ryu laughed, "Can't say he was the same man as the one you knew. People change a lot in this death game."

"Did something happen?" Night perked up.

"Something happened all right," Ryu rolled his eyes, "He and I parted ways after our friend, Hirasho died. I expected him to stick with our old party, but he wandered off on his own. Got in with the lower crowd."

"He did drugs?" Kirito raised an eyebrow.

"What? No!" Ryu exclaimed, "The bar doesn't serve real alcohol, do you really think drugs would be added in? Either way, I was told you wanted information on guilds. Not a history on idiots."

"Yeah, sorry," Kirito said, "Could you tell us some of the stronger guilds in the game right now?"

"That's pretty vague, and simple," Ryu looked surprised, "You really need a broker for that?"

"I also want headquarter locations," Kirito added.

"Ah," Ryu smirked, "That may be a bit more of a request. Well, let me get some off the top of my head. Hm… Indivisible maybe? I don't know where they are right now though. I'll get back to you on that. Dragon Brigade has some place in Urbus. I forget the exact location. Rock Bottom is ironically based in the mountains somewhere. I'll send you a list via Argo by tomorrow morning."

"Thank you," Kirito stood up.

"Hey," Ryu said, "Money?" Kirito had forgotten that unlike Argo, he had to pay for most brokers.

"Here," he paid Ryu 150 cor. "Come on Night, let's go." Kirito and Night exited the building made their way back home to the guild base. When they made it back, most of the players were out questing or helping put up advertisements so the base was almost empty.

"Hey guys!" called Sugiraku, one of the players in the guild, "Welcome back."

"Hey Su," Night said, "What's up?"

"Agil said to let you guys know that the plan is to have guild leader show up tomorrow to apply for join the raid team," Su grinned, "Right now he's out with the team setting up advertisements and selling the news to brokers."

"Sounds good," Kirito nodded, "Anything on Iron Wall?"

"All of their people left to go to their base or something," Su shrugged, "I don't know. I think someone said some of them would be coming back tomorrow. Ask Agil or Kaze."

"Well, thanks," Kirito high fived his guild member, and continued onward to his room. "Night, I'm out to go training. Can you go and check on how things are going with the advertisements?

"Sure thing," Night rolled his eyes, "Micromanagement. Just what I do best for ya."

"Thanks man," Kirito waved. "See you tonight."

Kirito got back from his questing around sunset. Agil and Kibaou were talking at the front door of the headquarters just when he walked in.

"Hey Kirito!" Agil called, "We've been looking for you. Where have you been?"

"I was out doing some quests," the leader told him, "I haven't gotten the list of guilds from Ryu yet, so I figured I'd kill some time until then."

"You could've come and helped us," Kibaou pointed out.

"I figured you guys had it covered," Kirito shrugged. "What's up?'

"We got the advertisements up for guilds to send their higher up members to the Iron Wall to join the alliance," Agil explained, " I figured it made more sense, as Queen was already in charge of the alliance anyways. Their guild already agreed. Do you want to be there for the interviews, or do you plan on going and approaching some of the more powerful guilds out there?"

"Hm…" Kirito thought, "I was thinking of going to meet with the more powerful guilds. I think it would have more impact if the leader of our guild went than a messenger."

"Then Night and I can deal with the interviews," Agil nodded.

"Soon as you get that list forward it to me, okay?" Kibaou asked. "I talked with the Dragon Brigade, but they said they want to talk with you and IceQueen tomorrow morning. Queen said she's fine with it, but I figured if you were at the meeting then Kazehi and I could do some visits to the other guilds and you could catch up later."

"Sounds fine with me," Kirito agreed. "That all?"

"Yeah," Kibaou answered. "Just send me that list."

"Alright, see you guys," Kirito said, "Night."

"Goodnight," the other two answered. Kirito went to his room swiftly. As soon as he had dequipped his gear, he collapsed on the bed. There he sat thinking about Aincrad. _How did I end up in this mess?_ Before he knew it, Kirito was fast asleep, never seeing the message from Ryu until the next morning. At which point the next step in his journey would truly begin.


End file.
